..Unexpectedly, transcripts of a phage-encoded S-layer protein gene were among the earliest and most abundant detected, suggesting that this partial homologue of a host protein plays an important role in the S-PM2 infection process...

The immense journey of bacteriophage T4--from d'Hérelle to Delbrück and then to Darwin and beyond

..The evolutionary advantages of the modular design of the adhesin involving both conserved structural elements and multiple independent and easily interchanged specificity determinants are discussed...

..We show that exchanges between nearby PeSLs can also create small circular DNAs that are apparently encapsidated by the virus. Such PeSL "mini-circles" may be important vectors for horizontal gene transfer...

..Such differences can be correlated with variations in capsid morphology, the arrangement of the MCP lattice, and the presence of different capsid accessory proteins between the subgroups of the T4 superfamily...

..This competition for resources has created an enormous pool of genetic diversity. Eons of horizontal genetic transfer have permitted the entire biosphere to directly benefit from a bargain-basement source of evolutionary innovation...

A selective barrier to horizontal gene transfer in the T4-type bacteriophages that has preserved a core genome with the viral replication and structural genes

..Such segments could be a sort of genetic glue that maintains the genetic cohesion of the T4-type phages via recombination within the most conserved sequences. This could mediate the swapping of nonconserved sequences that they flank...

The effects on Escherichia coli of expression of the cloned bacteriophage T4 nucleoid disruption (ndd) gene

..These data indicate that the host range of T4-type phages is much broader than previously imagined and that the laboratory isolate T4 belongs to a phage family that is extraordinarily widespread and diverse in the biosphere...

..The different T4-type phages appear to contain a set of common genes that can be exploited differently, by means of plasticity in the regulatory sequences and the precise choice of a large group of facultative genes...

..subtilis has a PAP similar to E. coli PAP I. Thus, the activity involved in RNA 3' polyadenylation in the gram-positive bacteria apparently resides in an enzyme distinct from its counterpart in gram-negative bacteria...

[T4-type bacteriophages: ubiquitous components of the "dark matter" of the biosphere]